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Bad teeth? Blame your parents

BRENDAN TREMBATH: New evidence has emerged of the link between the oral health of children and their parents.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found almost a quarter of the children with dental problems had parents with the same troubles.

The Australian Dental Association is optimistic the Government's new dental plan for children will help, but it won't happen for a few years.

Martin Cuddihy reports.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: The ramifications of dental health can go far beyond a toothache.

Mary Pearce is the coordinator of the dental health program run by the Brotherhood of St Laurence.

MARY PEARCE: Decaying and rotting teeth and cavities and ill-fitting dentures and impacted wisdom teeth, but in some cases, we had clients who were unable to eat solid foods.

And one client, because she couldn't eat properly, had dropped about 20 kilos, and she was weighing 45 kilos.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: She's seen people who can't get a job because of their teeth.

MARY PEARCE: We've had clients with extremely broken, damaged teeth that I've got to admit are extraordinarily unattractive. You're not going to be offered a job over someone else.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Two new reports from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare spell out the links between parents and their children.

The Institute's Professor Kaye Roberts-Thomson.

KAYE ROBERTS-THOMSON: A child with that sort of impact is more likely to be found in families where parents also experience those sort of impacts and also that parents have difficulty affording routine dental care and so tend to avoid or delay dental visits because of cost.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: The report found that almost a quarter of the children with dental problems had parents with the same trouble and they're usually from a lower socio-economic background.

Professor Roberts-Thomson again.

KAYE ROBERTS-THOMSON: Oral health is something that happens within a family context, and that's probably not surprising. People tend to eat the same foods, experience the same social disadvantage or advantage.

Those sorts of things would be expected at a family level and so in that respect I think it's not surprising.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: In August the Federal Government promised $4 billion to address the dental problems of children and people on low incomes.

From 2014, eligible children will be entitled to basic dental treatment that's capped at $1,000 in a two year period.

Doctor Mark Sinclair is the president of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Dental Association. He also runs a practice in Bathurst, and says there's a growing awareness of oral health.

MARK SINCLAIR: It seems to flow on that more and more information and statistical studies done on oral health throughout Australia are finding merit now in the public space, simply because there is now far greater awareness of the need for better oral hygiene.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Will the Government's newly-announced policy of dental care for children go some way towards rectifying the statistics that we've seen come out of this report?

MARK SINCLAIR: I think it'll make a genuine difference. I think there are concerns about the timeframe between the closure of the chronic diseases scheme and the implementation of the new scheme.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Dr Sinclair says he'll have to wait and see before giving the Government's new scheme a tick of approval.

MARK SINCLAIR: Some of the devil will be in the detail, and that will be about the number of services and the quantum available per child over two years, and genuinely how much treatment can be carried out, and also how much education, to both parent and child, about the need for correct dental care.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Another concurrently released report has found that people with other conditions, like asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and depression, are more likely to have poor dental health.

The Government has recently axed a program aimed at helping their dental health.

Mary Pearce from the Brotherhood of St Laurence says teeth are part of the body and that means they should be covered by Medicare.

MARY PEARCE: Dental admissions are the largest category of acute preventable hospital admissions, with about 50,000 admissions per year relating to dental health issues. And about 7 to 10 per cent of GP services are related to poor oral health.

So it makes complete sense to us to include dental health under, in universal care under Medicare.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Mary Pearce from the Brotherhood of St Laurence ending that report by Martin Cuddihy.